This blog is now retired...Please join us at our new site!

My daughters Mariya and Elena and my friend Marta have shared this blog. In the long absence since I last wrote, new blogs have been manifested. These will now take the place of this blog. Please join us on our new sites:

My blog has moved to: http://doityourselflife.org/
There I continue with the themes of this blog, including my conversation with 20-somethings, who taught me about DIY.

My daughter Mariya has also launched her new blog. http://earthboundbeauty.wordpress.com/
Earth Bound Beauty is Mariya's record of her quest to be a better, healthier, stronger version of herself. Her blog focuses on food, fitness, natural health, and self care.

"The Quickening"

I am officially calling it spring here in the Pacific Northwest. Sorry about that, other climes. We put up with a lot of rain and cloudy days, true but we get paid back in the number of days on either side, spring and fall where things grow. NOW is the time of Quickening, the fertile secret POP of life in the belly of Mother Earth.

 Imbolc, St. Brigid's Day, Groundhog Day and Candlemass: They are all the same holiday!
This Wikipedia article does a good job explaining how.

Imbolc (also Imbolg), or St Brigid’s Day (Scots Gaelic Là Fhèill Brìghde, Irish Lá Fhéile Bríde, the feast day of St. Brigid), is a Celtic festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is celebrated on 1 or 2 February (or 12 February, according to the Old Calendar) in the northern hemisphere and 1 August in the southern hemisphere. These dates fall approximately halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

The holiday was, and for many still is, a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Celebrations often involved hearthfires, special foods (butter, milk, and bannocks, for example), divination or watching for omens, candles or a bonfire if the weather permits. Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to the North American Groundhog Day.

In the modern Irish Calendar, Imbolc is variously known as the Feast of Saint Brigid (Secondary Patron of Ireland), Lá Fhéile Bríde, and Lá Feabhra — the first day of Spring. Christians often call the day "Candlemas", long celebrated as "the feast of the Purification of the Virgin".

Top Trends of 2012 Point to Health

Some of the top trends predicted for 2012:
1. More interest in sustainably produced local and organic foods.
2. Fresh whole foods made with minimal processing, lower sodium content and fewer unpronounceable ingredients
3. Probiotics
4. Antioxidant-and Omega3 rich foods
5. Fiber
6. Natural alternatives to sugar such as stevia
7. Allergen-free foods (think gluten free, nut-free, lactose-free, etc)
8. Increased veggie consumption
9 Elimination of high-fructose corn syrup.

Might As Well Dream Big 2012

Here is my dream business: http://anamayaresort.com/index.html. A Body, Mind & Spirit Resort. Yes please.

Any ideas on how I begin to build this dream from the 60-something crowd, or if I am totally off-base and unrealistic, I would love any thoughts about the viability of this particular business model, and suggestions towards the first step.

Smphony of Science

I don't know why I never heard of these until last night (thank you, Facebook) but they are utterly wonderful--the more so if you know what they are talking about, at least a little and who they are. Fabulous. Quantum physics, the history of the human species and brain science, set to music. Amazing.
http://symphonyofscience.com/videos.html

Honoring Roots

My mom has always been a force of nature. For those who think that sounds like a good thing, imagine a tornado as your mother. Certainly worthy of awe and respect, beautiful in its own way. But get out of its path when it turns in your direction and sometimes, though you take shelter, you will be destroyed.

But now, mom is 88.  She did not age gradually, but rather like a dog, one day, you notice the muzzle has grayed and the next, the years suddenly grow heavy.  Only a few months ago, she was wreaking havoc on the home where she had been placed following her broken femur.  Already that time seems long ago, though, as with a tornado, when calm descends, it is hard to put your guard down.  The force is gone but the devastation remains. The question is, now, is how to reframe my own life with mom. I find myself reflecting on the gifts she gave me. Ironically one of them is how to deal with forces of nature. I find myself less flummoxed by stormy or difficult people and situations than many around me. Like a negative teacher, the one who does everything wrong, you learn from watching how to do things right. So, another gift that she and my daughters gave me was the chance to understand the true dimensions of being a mother.  My love of nature is another gift, the place where I met my true mother: Mother Earth.

Mom was 87 before we got her to a psychiatrist. It has been years since I heard her laugh. The medications she was given uncovered the gentler human residing inside the coat of armor. Over the year, I learned to have faith in that gentler creature, though I rarely saw it, and to love it rather than my mom’s injured personality.  Another gift.

This last Christmas and New Year, I celebrated family roots through food and tradition.  I have a fun heritage: Mexican and Scottish. That is a lot of enjoyable cuisine and some fabulous folklore.  This I recommend to you. Eat your birthright.  Go beyond the  lives of mom and dad into the spacious world of ancestors.  I know more about my ancestral traditions and foods than my parents ever wanted to know. They did not pass it on to me; I discovered it, bit by bit. And what’s fun is I have had friends to play with. I traveled by gastronomy, and touched my ancestors and roots, all of them, even my mom.  Try it this year. Genealogical exploration through feasting.

My Avatar (kidding, I think)

Guy travels the world and shoots one second of footage in each location.

www.youtube.com